Proposals to borrow nearly $7.26 million through three bond ordinances, adopt the 2014 municipal budget that raises property taxes 0.87% and borrow an additional $600,000 to pay for snow removal head the agenda for the May 6, 2014, council meeting.
The meeting agendas and related materials are here.
The administration is asking the council to approve the 2014 municipal budget several months in advance of tradition, typically in the fall. Chief Financial Officer John Gross said at the April 22 council meeting that the operating portion of the budget is in place and that future additions of pending grants and the associated expenditures would offset each other and keep the budget in balance.
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The amended $73.38 million budget, which at present increases spending $85,147 from 2013 (and will increase more throughout the year as grants and their offsetting associated expenditures are added), projects a total municipal tax increase, including the library and Open Space taxes, of 0.87%. Under the budget estimates, taxes for the owner of the average assessed value single family home in town, $339,808, would rise 1.22%, or $38.18, to $3,158.86. (Taxes for this average homeowner will rise more than the tax rate because the administration is projecting a 0.35% increase in the average assessed value single family home from 2013.)
State law requires a public comment hearing at the council meeting.
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Three bond ordinances are on for second and final reading at the council meeting, with a public comment hearing for each. If approved, the borrowing will raise the town’s outstanding and authorized debt to $70.87 million, up 14% from $63.6 million at the end of 2013.
- Borrowing $550,000 to contribute to the Llewellyn Park sewer and road improvement project. The original bond ordinance, approved in 2012, authorized the $4.18 million project to borrow up to $3.68 million. The entire project was to be repaid by Llewellyn Park property owners. The ordinance was designed to give Llewellyn Park property owners access to the township’s low borrowing cost to avoid much higher interest rates they would otherwise face. The administration is now proposing to borrow $550,000 more that will be repaid by all the town’s property taxpayers. The project cost has increased by 14% to $4.78 million. The proposed ordinance does not include any explanation for the change.
At the April 22 council meeting, Business Administrator Jack Sayers justified the increase on safety reasons, saying sanitary sewer problems in the park would impact other parts of the town’s system and adding that the 2012 project didn’t address sanitary sewer problems. I then pointed out that the original ordinance appeared to address that concern, reading part of the title: “Bond Ordinance Providing an Appropriation of $4,184,305 for Reconstruction of the Sanitary and Storm Sewerage Systems …” Mr. Sayers did not respond. This bond ordinance clearly doesn’t add any construction work, indicating that this ordinance spreads cost overruns on the work authorized in the original bond ordinance to all the town’s property taxpayers.
This proposal appears at odds with Mayor Robert Parisi’s comment at the April 8 council meeting that “… As members of the council know that we’ve approved bonding for Llewellyn Park and we’ve approved bonding for redevelopment. Those are not, that’s not debt service that the taxpayer, the average taxpayer is responsible for.” (The comment is at the 10:30 timemark of the council meeting video.)
- Borrowing $6.65 million to fund a wide variety of capital improvements ranging from traffic cones, cots, hoses and desks to an aerial ladder fire truck and asphalt roller to street re-surfacing and sewer upgrades. The total estimated cost of the purchases is $7 million. The administration provided a 10-page summary of the proposed investments that I’ve posted on West Orange Grassroots here. At the meeting, I asked the administration to put the document on the town website – so far, that hasn’t happened.
- Borrowing $57,000 to replace bleachers at various fields at the high school. The ordinance does not say which fields or why the town is paying for improvements on school property. In an e-mail sent just before the meeting started, Chief Financial Officer John Gross did not identify the sites but wrote: “It is my understanding that the BOE does not have such funding.” The town has funded millions of dollars of improvements at the high school athletic facility in the last decade – in at least one case borrowing money that the school district repays -- sidestepping the state law requiring most major improvements by school districts to pass voter approval.
The administration is also asking council approval for an Emergency Appropriation for what it calls “extraordinary expenses incurred, or to be incurred, by the emergency response and clean up from This (sic) winter’s snow storms …” The resolution calls for “special emergency notes” of at least $120,000 each for the next five years to repay the appropriation. This will raise our debt service during this time period.
The administration did not provide any accounting for the costs, and the administration has not asked for council review and approval of any contracts or expenditures made for the snow removal. I’ve been asking for this information for some time, most recently Friday.
Other agenda items of interest include:
- An executive session, closed to the public, to discuss the town’s litigation with Link Communications Ltd. over the town’s claims that electronics, including computers and cameras, for the town’s police cars didn’t work.
- An award of the 2014 food and beverage concession at Ginny Duenkel Pool to Verona Bagels & Deli (Bagelwich Bagel Bakery) for $6,500. The contract was competitively bid but resulted in only one bid.
If you’d like to contact the council with your thoughts on any of these issues, please send an e-mail to council@westorange.org or call 973.325.4155 to leave a message.
I’m a West Orange Township councilman since 2010, reachable at jkrakoviak@westorange.org. I'm a business communications consultant in my spare time.
